After a drunken commotion, Zhang Xiaoping took his brothers who had eaten and drank enough to go down to rest. The officers of the Independent Brigade also consciously left the wine table. In this compartment, only Zhao Huaili, Zhou Jinbao, and Zhou Wen were left. , Miaohua four people.
Seeing that everyone around him had gone to empty tables, Zhao Huaili smiled mysteriously at Zhou Wen, gave a thumbs up and said: "The scholar is indeed very powerful. Just a dozen of you, who have been entrenched for decades, and the government has taken advantage of him." Fa's Iron Chain Gang eradicated them in one night, and I, Lao Zhao, admire them."
Zhou Wen smiled and joked: "Brother Zhao said that, as if he didn't admire me very much before?"
Hearing this, Zhao Huaili was stunned for a moment, then pointed at Zhou Wen and laughed.
"Haha... you are such a scholar. Not only are you very capable and strong, but you are also easy-going and unforgiving with your words. As expected, you haven't changed at all. You are still the same scholar."
"I think Brother Zhao has changed a bit." Zhou Wen continued to say with a smile.
"Change? Where have I changed?" Zhao Huaili was a little confused.
Zhou Wen pointed at his slightly protruding belly and said, "As my body gets bigger, so does my belly."
"Hahaha..." There was a burst of laughter in the room.
The banter between Zhou Wen and Zhao Huaili immediately made the atmosphere a little more relaxed than before, and the sense of unfamiliarity that everyone had not seen for many years suddenly disappeared, as if they had returned to the close relationship during the Central Plains War. .
After joking for a while, Zhao Huaili said seriously: "Sir Gu has ordered me to fully cooperate with your actions. I also know that you still have secret orders from the Military Commission and the principal. But I don't even need to read it. Just one sentence, you scholar." This matter is my, Zhao Huaili's, matter, just tell me, what should we do?"
No matter how sincere Zhao Huaili's confession was, since he said it, it meant that he would definitely give some support, which made Zhou Wen feel touched and secretly relieved. "
You must know that Zhou Wen had no intention of using the independent brigade troops to participate in the battle unless it was a last resort. What he needed was some logistical and intelligence support from the independent brigade.
But Zhao Huaili is an old friend who has not been in contact for many years. Now he is in a high and powerful position. Will he still have any grievances about the conflict between the two parties back then? Or maybe he has become a little complacent and no longer thinks about his comrades-in-arms. These are all uncertain.
And if Zhao Huaili really comes to reject people thousands of miles away, then Zhou Wen's original plan will change. It would be a bit irrational for him to come to this place with the right time, location, people and no occupation to fight against the local bandits and bullies without any support.
That's why he took action against the Tiesuo Gang first without contacting Zhao Huaili, just to see Zhao Huaili's reaction. If Zhao Huaili showed dissatisfaction, he would decide to leave the next day and find another way.
Now that Zhao Huaili has expressed his attitude, Zhou Wen stopped being polite and clasped his fists towards Zhao Huaili and said: "Thank you, Brother Zhao Gaoyi. I really need Brother Zhao to support me from behind."
Zhao Huaiyi quickly waved his hand and said: "Why are you and my brother so polite? Besides, scholar, you were the 'Zhao Zilong in the Army' personally designated by the principal. You are full of courage. How can I, old Zhao, have the courage to lend it to you? Tell me, you need me, old man." What did Zhao do?”
Zhou Wen then took out a piece of letterhead from his jacket pocket and handed it to Zhao Huaili.
Zhao Huaili took it and took a look and saw a list on it. The first one was Yihu Gang, and the second one said Pingbotang.
This Pingbotang is another force that Zhou Wen wants to eliminate quickly besides the Yihu Gang.
Zhou Wen had previously learned through his relationship with the Qinggang that Pingbotang was actually not the kind of open-faced water bandit who established his own village and raised his own flag, but a local wealthy family that had dominated the place for many years.
Most of the people in this tribe have the surname Ding.
It is said that he was a scholar who lived here during the Qianlong period. Because he failed the imperial examination many times and was resentful of the corruption and unfairness of the imperial examination, he became frustrated and settled in a remote fishing village by Poyang Lake. He married a wife and had children. According to family rules, future generations will never be allowed to take imperial examinations or serve as officials.
Although this scholar surnamed Ding failed in the imperial examinations many times, he was still quite a smart person. After settling in the fishing village, he used his small savings to buy two small boats. Others bought boats for fishing, but he took advantage of the rivers to start a business. Within a few years, he accumulated a lot of wealth, establishing the Ding family's status in the fishing village in one fell swoop.
So in the past two hundred years, as the tribe continued to spread its branches and leaves, the Ding family also went smoothly and submerged a local wealthy family. The small fishing village called Pingbo Village at that time has now become a village with a population of tens of thousands. The market town is called Pingbo Town.
Judging from these histories, although the Ding family can be regarded as a wealthy local family, they cannot be connected with any water bandits.
But in fact, this Ding family is a long-standing water bandit who eats people without spitting out their bones, and it is also an ancestral profession.
It turns out that no matter which generation of the Ding family started, they discovered that the most profitable business on the water was business without capital.
Since the ancestors stipulated that the descendants of the Ding family could not be officials and were not allowed to take the imperial examination, the descendants of future generations would naturally not need a good reputation.
Moreover, with the advent of chaos in the late Qing Dynasty, the government's control and deterrence over local areas became increasingly weak, and some wealthy families even allowed some wealthy families to train their servants to form regiments and form strongholds to protect themselves. The Ding family took advantage of the situation and established Pingbotang, a water bandit gang that appeared to be a local troupe but actually specialized in robbing houses and ships in the name of Tuanlian Xiangyong.
The word "pingbo" is originally named after the original small fishing village was located in a sheltered bay of Poyang Lake, which means calm waves and calm winds. But after Pingbotang was established, every time a boat was robbed, it would cause chaos in Hukou.
Just because Pingbotang never left anyone alive every time he robbed, no matter how many people were on the robbed ship, no matter men, women, old or young, they would all be killed. Even the cargo ship was pierced and sank to the bottom of the river. His hands and feet were done very cleanly. Clean, leaving no evidence.
But corpses always float up, and sometimes dozens of corpses are found dozens of miles downstream. Experienced operators can usually find out the approximate time of death of the corpse, and naturally someone will judge that it came from the lake. It floated down from the mouth of the river.
Moreover, although their family's ancestral precepts did not allow them to become officials, they did not stipulate that their daughters were not allowed to marry officials.
The Ding family is worthy of being the heirloom of scholars. Almost everyone in the family can read and write. Naturally, they are smarter than the average person and know the benefits of being on good terms with the government.
As a result, almost all the daughters of the Ding family married into wealthy families or officials in the Hukou area, and some even married into surrounding counties. Over several generations, a huge network of relationships has been established in Hukou County and surrounding areas.
